Ignore a character via locale symbols.dic

[codeurimpulsif]

Hi everyone,

I'm working on a patch for the french dictionary in NVDA, but I can't figure out how to make it work with the default french dictionary.

I'm trying to have a character ignored during pronunciation when this character is inside a word, for example: administrateur·ice should be pronounced like administrateurice, ignoring the middle dot (·).

I try to add a line similar to the apostrophe in french, like:

in-word ·	point médian	all	norep	# · dans un mot

But it don't seems to works.

When I edit the default dictionary via the NVDA menu, it create a default.dic in userConfig/speechDicts/ folder with this content:

·		0	3

And this result in the desired pronunciation, ignoring the middle dot when it's inside a word.

Do you know I can get the same result just by editing the default french symbols.dic dictionary?

Thanks!

[CyrilleB79]

Hi @codeurimpulsif

You have correctly defined the following line in the symbols sectinon:
in-word · point médian all norep # · dans un mot

But you need to define the in-word · complex symbol itself in the complexSymbols section, for example:
in-word · (?<=[^\W_])·(?=[^\W_])

Moreover, I'd recommend to use never value instead of norep, i.e.:
in-word · point médian all never # · dans un mot

Indeed, with only norep, you pass the symbol to the synth and it may be spoken by the synth itself; at least with IBMTTS it is spoken "point".

[codeurimpulsif]

Thanks for your help!

I just tried this 2 methods in source/locale/fr/symbols.dic:

complexSymbols:
in-word ·	(?<=[^\W_])[·]

symbols:
in-word ·	point médian	all	never	# · dans un mot

and

complexSymbols:
in-word ·	(?<=[^\W_])·(?=[^\W_])

symbols:
in-word ·	point médian	all	never	# · dans un mot

I recompile it from zero but none of it works, the middle dot is still pass to the synth.

[CyrilleB79]

From my previous tests, this worked on my end.

So I'd recommend you to test and debug step by step, e.g.:

• Check if the symbol file is taken into account, e.g. correct syntax, modifying the value of another symbol
• Check if the complex expression is recognized modifying the replace value of both symbols in-word · and ·, to see which one is picked up
• etc.